Monthly Archives: March 2012

The most amazing thunderstorm was going on close to us when I awoke at 4:15am. It was still going at 8am and we had heavy rain.

Linds and Sam’s flight was on time and they brought plenty of goodies from Manila, like fresh peanuts in the shell. Prudy boiled them and we munched on them while watching Super 15 Rugby. There is also Polverone, Loose leaf tea, Pringles and cans of Planter’s Nuts. Believe it or not you cannot buy nuts in cans in Singapore, it’s all packets from a company called Camel.

Thai Green Chicken curry for lunch. Sam suffered a bit from the spiciness.

It looks like the helper to look after me while Prudy is in Europe is done.

A nothing day? Not likely. With England chasing 340 to beat Sri Lanka in Galle it was a tense afternoon listening to Test Match Special. Sadly, once Jonathan Trott was out at 5pm Singapore time I knew it was all over and Sri Lanka won shortly after Tea by 75 runs.

Off to the hospital for the usual check up and to get the BMB results which were good, no sign of Leukaemia cells. I mentioned to the doctor that I feel mildly nauseous since he cut the Prednisolone dose to 15mg and he said that meant my stomach had a bit of GVHD so he would not reduce the dose again for a couple of weeks. He also said that maybe, after next week’s check up, if I am stable, we can go to fortnightly check ups.

This raises an interesting question, to stay here or to go home and fly back every 2 weeks for the check up and to get the medications. This apartment is expensive, the flight plus hotel overnight twice a month will be much, much, cheaper. My Hickman line needs weekly flushing, but I can get that done in St. Luke’s or Makati Medical. Maybe I should run a poll of my readers to see what they think that I should do?

A busy day dealing with odds and sods. The grocer who delivers to us has cut us off because they are closing all their CoD accounts, so we need to find another source of getting the heavy stuff like bottled water and canned drinks of which I consume a fair quantity every day. I’ve registered for online shopping with Cold Storage to fix that and started to set up our regular shopping list to make ordering easier.

I went to the office to sort some documents out and met up with colleagues from Melbourne and Cambridge who were in the middle of Budget reviews. Lucky them!

Then I went to Bras Basah Complex and bought 2 TI-Nspire-CX calculators which are the required units for Sam’s Math IGCSE course. Those things are expensive! S$195 each and cash only! The other one is for Sam’s friend Jamie.

After that it was a phone call to Singapore Airlines to move our flight to Manila scheduled for April 1 to June 30 now that that doctors have decided to keep me here until about then.

The old, “burnt” skin is disappearing quite quickly now, my body is getting back to it’s normal colour. And I’m having to shave my chin and upper lip every other day.

Linds went back to Manila today to be with Sam for his school play, “Lord of the Flies”, this coming week. They will be back on Saturday for 2 weeks. Prudy returns from KL tomorrow evening so I have to look after myself for a day and a bit.

I’m definitely a bit more nauseous so the reduced Prednisolone is having an effect. Strong tasting foods are best at making me want to eat. On the plus side, the last 2 nights I have only had to get up once each night. I hope it continues.

I listened to the Malaysian Grand Prix on BBC Radio 5 Live this afternoon. It was rain interrupted and a thrilling race. It’s the only F1 GP I have watched live, about 10 years ago.